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Music : River: The Joni Letters (with Bonus Tracks) - Amazon.com Exclusive
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Rating: 
- Good cd for those who love the jazzy Joni.
This is more of a serious jazz album than a typical tribute cd, and it features excellent, meditative work by Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter. It's delightful to hear them stretch out and riff on the songs from Joni Mitchell's "Court and Spark" to "Hissing of Summer Lawns" phase instead of just playing variations on jazz standards. The music is primarily from that phase of Mitchell's career. If you like Joni Mitchell but are not much of a jazz lover, this album is likely to disappoint you, but if you enjoy both Joni Mitchell and straight-ahead jazz, you will find this cd worth repeated listening.
Rating:
- Herbie and Joni Score Again!
85% of this CD is remarkable. Hancock captures the melodic essence of Mitchell's classics and has selected the right artists to re-interpret her lyrics. Wayne Shorter and all the other musicians deepen all the songs. Hancock surrendered too much leeway on "River" but even the less-than-100% tracks are wonderful.
Rating: - Great music!
I love this CD. As a Joni Mitchell fan from way back, it's wonderful to hear these songs done by different artists. Very imaginative arrangements keep the old songs sounding very fresh. I find it a very soothing CD for driving to lower my stress level.
Rating:
- Disappointed
I loved the last Hancock CD and thought this one would be wonderful...w/ Joni's songs. A couple were enjoyable, but most tracks didn't appeal to me and I was sorry I spent the money.
Rating: - Slow and boring
Let's start with my prejudices: I worship most of Joni's "golden decade", from Ladies of the Canyon up through Shadows and Light. Blue is a perfect album (whatever that means) and Amelia is a perfect song.
I was excited about this album, especially since I enjoyed Hancock's Possibilities very much. But this CD is a snore. As opposed to Possibilities, where HH embraced the rockiness of his collaborators, in this recording he removes any trace of rock roots. And Joni, folkie though she be, is a rocker and a wild woman at heart - you can't remove that aspect entirely from the music without diminishing it. Energetic, pushing-the-beat guitars (whether acoustic or electric) animate almost all of her best music. To balance the melancholy of the song "River", you need a song like "This Flight Tonight", but nothing like that is present on the record.
Plus, I find the vocals to be worse than disappointing - actually, they are disconcerting. Maybe that's just my brain's resistance to the new, having been imprinting with the nuances of Joni's delivery for so many listenings. However, analytically, I think a lot of the vocals are too "singerly" - it feels like they abandon the diary-like, intimate essence of the songwriting in order to deliver "performances", and I find it unpleasant. Maybe I just can't be pleased on this score, though, so judge for yourself.
- Good cd for those who love the jazzy Joni.This is more of a serious jazz album than a typical tribute cd, and it features excellent, meditative work by Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter. It's delightful to hear them stretch out and riff on the songs from Joni Mitchell's "Court and Spark" to "Hissing of Summer Lawns" phase instead of just playing variations on jazz standards. The music is primarily from that phase of Mitchell's career. If you like Joni Mitchell but are not much of a jazz lover, this album is likely to disappoint you, but if you enjoy both Joni Mitchell and straight-ahead jazz, you will find this cd worth repeated listening.
Rating:
- Herbie and Joni Score Again!85% of this CD is remarkable. Hancock captures the melodic essence of Mitchell's classics and has selected the right artists to re-interpret her lyrics. Wayne Shorter and all the other musicians deepen all the songs. Hancock surrendered too much leeway on "River" but even the less-than-100% tracks are wonderful.
Rating:
- Great music!I love this CD. As a Joni Mitchell fan from way back, it's wonderful to hear these songs done by different artists. Very imaginative arrangements keep the old songs sounding very fresh. I find it a very soothing CD for driving to lower my stress level.
Rating:
- DisappointedI loved the last Hancock CD and thought this one would be wonderful...w/ Joni's songs. A couple were enjoyable, but most tracks didn't appeal to me and I was sorry I spent the money.
Rating:
- Slow and boringLet's start with my prejudices: I worship most of Joni's "golden decade", from Ladies of the Canyon up through Shadows and Light. Blue is a perfect album (whatever that means) and Amelia is a perfect song.
I was excited about this album, especially since I enjoyed Hancock's Possibilities very much. But this CD is a snore. As opposed to Possibilities, where HH embraced the rockiness of his collaborators, in this recording he removes any trace of rock roots. And Joni, folkie though she be, is a rocker and a wild woman at heart - you can't remove that aspect entirely from the music without diminishing it. Energetic, pushing-the-beat guitars (whether acoustic or electric) animate almost all of her best music. To balance the melancholy of the song "River", you need a song like "This Flight Tonight", but nothing like that is present on the record.
Plus, I find the vocals to be worse than disappointing - actually, they are disconcerting. Maybe that's just my brain's resistance to the new, having been imprinting with the nuances of Joni's delivery for so many listenings. However, analytically, I think a lot of the vocals are too "singerly" - it feels like they abandon the diary-like, intimate essence of the songwriting in order to deliver "performances", and I find it unpleasant. Maybe I just can't be pleased on this score, though, so judge for yourself.